(Video Link to Reformation Sunday Sermon Preached at Grace Lutheran Church in Huntington Beach, California pastored by my friend and colleague Rev. Chris Tweitmann who introduces me at the beginning of the video is http://vimeo.com/36052733). Password to view is Burton (case sensitive). Enjoy!

You may also listen to sermons I have preached at West Side Presbyterian Church in West Seattle where I previously served as a parish associate (go to sermons athttp://www.wspc.org).

I offer these for my blog readers who have requested it. I will continue to post more in the near future. As one who loves preaching, I am humbled and honored everytime the invitation to preach comes to me. I have been blessed to preach to many great congregations through the years and I look forward to what lies ahead in the future.

For me, Karl Barth spoke profoundly to the call of Christian preaching when he wrote:

But, some might say, how can we theologians come to speak God’s Word in our words? Or, some congregation might say, how can we come to hear God’s Word in the words of this or that pastor who has nothing to offer us, or in the words of all pastors, none of whom we trust? … If we expected to hear God's Word more, we would hear it more even in the weak and perverted sermons. The statement that there was nothing in it for me should often read that I was not ready to let anything be said to me. What is needed here is repentance by both pastors and congregations…. This does not mean that congregations must say Yea and Amen to all the words of their reverend pastors. Pastors are sinners. They are unprofitable servants with all their words even though they do all that they are under obligation to do (cf. Luke 17:10). Nevertheless, they are servants of the Most High (cf. Dan. 3:26). They speak in his name. They carry out his commission, which is a reality even today. No matter how well or how badly they do it, this in the presupposition of listening to them…. They know fear and trembling whenever they mount the pulpit. They are crushed by the feeling of being poor human beings who are probably more unworthy than all those who sit before them. Nevertheless, precisely then it is still a matter of God’s Word. The Word of God that they have to proclaim is what judges them, but this does not alter the fact – indeed, it means – that they have to proclaim it. This is the presupposition of their proclaiming it.”

March 25, 2015

Watched a strange and not great movie the other night...I will share the "essence" of the sci-fi movie that stars Bruce Willis as the founder and CEO of an ultimate fantasy resort in the not too distant future; The Resort's name is "VICE" where customers can play out their wildest fantasies with artificial inhabitants who look like humans. One of the female artificials becomes self-aware and escapes and is pursued by Willis and a police officer who used to create artificials and who now wants to shut down VICE. While being pursued by Willis' security team from VICE, the female artificial and the police officer enter a deserted church (which has a significant place in the film) whereupon the artificial asks the police officer why he goes and lives in the church. Here is his response that made me sit up and take notice...

"This is the only place where I can find sanctuary. People tend to avoid church when they are living a life of perpetual fantasy."

The Beatles began their song "A Day in the Life" with "I read the news today, oh boy..." Well it was inevitable that the PCUSA would finally do what it did yesterday, deciding to sail with the winds of our culture and redefine marriage that has been held to be sacred since the Garden of Eden...traditionally between one man and one woman, but now between two persons...my inbox of emails and text lit up last night and has not stopped...many friends and colleagues asking me how much longer can I stay in the PCUSA. Unfortunately, many of these folks who now ask me this question yet again need to be reminded that had they have stayed in this denomination, this would not have passed. Those who have read this blog for a while know how much this has been a struggle for me. My answer right now is "I do not know!" I am sad. I am grieving. I am disappointed. However, I am glad to be journeying with other Presbyterians in The Fellowship of Presbyterians and we have offered a pointed response which I believe is very helpful. I would love to hear from you. Please pray. Here is The Fellowship of Presbyterian Response:

a network of churches and leaders called together to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ by growing in Christ's likeness,living by God's Word, and joining in God's mission in the world.

Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have reached a moment of change in the PC(USA) which some celebrate and others mourn. The redefinition of marriage has now been approved by a majority of the presbyteries. Beginning in June, the Directory for Worship will permit the marriage of two people of the same gender. This change is both profound and expected.

By approving this change we are disregarding the clear teaching of Scripture, the wisdom of those who have lived and died for the faith before us, and the continuing consensus of the contemporary church around the world. To do this is both disobedient and unwise. We know this particular change was intended by its proponents to extend the grace and the good news of Jesus Christ, and to further the witness of his Kingdom. We believe it accomplishes neither. Our objection to the passage of this redefinition is no way anti-gay. Our concern is that the church is capitulating to the culture and, in so doing, is misrepresenting Scripture.

We reaffirm that the language of this amendment does not require participation in services of marriage with which we disagree. It remains up to each Session and Teaching Elder to determine what is and is not faithful for themselves and for their congregation.

We continue to face great challenges to our witness as a denomination and, more importantly, to our personal faithfulness. It is not enough for us to simply be for or against something. We who believe this change in the definition of marriage does not extend the grace and good news of Jesus Christ, nor further the witness of the Kingdom must now ask: What would, and how can we accomplish this?

Many of our neighbors do not know the Savior. Will we find a way to build relationships with them and introduce them to Jesus without reinterpreting biblical teaching? We believe, by God's grace, we can. But we must be committed to listening carefully and without judgment to their questions and their needs, and to responding with sincerity and with humility as those who have experienced the forgiveness and persistent grace of Jesus.

Our culture is marked by increasing hopelessness and isolation, yet we who follow Jesus are being nurtured daily in the community of the Trinity. Can we find a way to extend this community without compromising its foundational teachings? We believe, by Gods' grace, we can. But we must be willing to go to the darkest and loneliest places with the compassion, conviction, and hope of the Good News we profess.

Joining in God's mission in this culture and leading others in this time of profound change is difficult. Yet God has called and equipped us for his mission. Accepting that call-growing in Christ's likeness, living by God's Word, and joining in God's mission in the world-cannot be done alone. You are not alone. We have created The Fellowship Community to offer encouragement and accountability; spurring one another on to the type of love and good works that will fulfill our mutual calling.

March 09, 2015

I love the season of Lent as a follower of Jesus Christ. Annually, the church sets aside time to reflect on the Christian life and journey to the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ and into the great anticipation of Jesus Christ coming again. Several years ago in my personal practice of Lent, I began daily listening to Mozart's Requiem and his great Mass in C Minor every day. Daily God speaks something different to me and I can say it has become a deeply transformational discipline every year. I have been fortunate in 3 of the last 4 churches I have been senior pastor the chancel choir along with orchestra have performed the Requiem.

This year I have added Johann Sebastian Bach's Passions according to St Matthew and St John to Mozart's works. So today (Monday) I listened to Mozart and tomorrow I will alternate with Bach.

I only offer this as another way to enter into the Lenten Season...I invite you to Listen for Lent.

A Prayer for Lent

"Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by man temptations; and as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son and our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit; one holy, triune God, to whom belongs all the glory, now and forever. Amen"

March 02, 2015

As a preaching/teaching pastor, I usually preach through books of the Bible to the congregation I serve. Here at North Lakeland Presbyterian Church I just finished a series on the book of Jonah for example. But during Advent and Lent I alter that practice. In the ancient church Lent was observed as a period of self and ecclesial examination, allowing the Holy Spirit to work through a time of concentrated confession and repentance of sin(s) and the practice of the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and alms-giving. It was also a time of catechism, in fact an intense time of instruction in the Christian Faith, preparing people for baptism (on Easter) as well as (re)teaching the Christian Faith to those who were already baptized. I have followed that practice through the years, often preaching/teaching through one of the creeds of the Presbyterian Church (Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Westminster Confession/Cathechisms, Heidelberg Catechism, and The Barmen Confession), but I have also preached/taught through The 10 Commandments, The Beatitudes, The 7 Deadly Vices (Sins) and The 7 Virtues of the Christian Faith and The Lord's Prayer. This Lent I have returned to preach/teach The Lord's Prayer as I am convinced that the greatest barometer of the health of a Christian or of a Christian Community is the quality and quantity of praying. One of the early sayings of the church was lex orandi, lex credendi("as we pray/worship, so we believe"). So while preparing for this series, I came across a book that had set on my shelf since it was published in 2006 that has been a great guide, not specifically on The Lord's Prayer, but more of a book that places the Lord's Prayer in its proper context; Scot McKnight's Praying with The Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today. Early in the book, McKnight compares and contrasts what he calls Praying in Church vs. Praying with the Church. I think it is true that many people only pray IN church or they only pray the most basic of prayers suggested by Anne Lamott's book HELP! THANKS! WOW!(a book I adore for its simplicity as a starting point for people struggling with prayer). After reading Tim Keller's excellent book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God and McKnight's book, I am even more convinced of the need for the rediscovery of praying with the church and the Lord's Prayer is a great way to practice this daily. McKnight says the following:

"We pray with the Church whenever we read or recite the Psalms, whenever we utter the Lord's Prayer aloud, and whenever we learn to use the prayer books of the Church (for example The Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican/Episcopal Church). That is, we pray with the Church when we pray at fixed time with the Church...it is an act of joining with the whole church, as an act that embodies the "communion of saints" and as an act of solidarity in worship...we are invited to let our personal prayers be engulfed and enlarged by the prayers of the church as we pray both in the church and with the church."

The Lord's Prayer, after all, is a corporate prayer that can be said together by Christians as it is in many traditions, but can also be prayed personally...Every time we begin the Lord's Prayer, no matter where we are, that we pray to "OUR FATHER" not just "MY FATHER"...it is a family prayer made possible because THE FATHER to whom we pray is first and foremost THE FATHER OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, who invites us to pray with Him "OUR FATHER". And "OUR FATHER" is not a personal nor a tribal deity.The one to whom we pray is not just OUR FATHER but THE FATHER OF MANY MORE of which we are only a part ("the communion of saints"). Only then can we continue "WHO IS IN HEAVEN, HOLY IS YOUR NAME. YOUR KINGDOM COME. YOUR WILL BE DONE. HERE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD. FORGIVE US AS WE FORGIVE OTHERS. PLEASE DO NOT LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL/THE EVIL ONE. FOR YOURS IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, THE GLORY FOREVER. AMEN."

It brings great comfort and encouragement that literally millions if not billions of people have joined me and us in that prayer. Now that is the power of prayer! Amen...

February 19, 2015

I wish to commend, albeit with the removal of two mariological statements consistent with the Roman Catholic Church to which I do not subscribe, Pope Francis' message for Lent and his message he offered for Ash Wednesday. I continue to work and pray that the Protestant Church would embrace Lent in a more significant way. I have seen God use the period of Lent to transform lives and congregations where this time within the Church Year is observed. I personally believe the Church Protestant needs Lent and Advent as part of its rhythm of congregational life. Many do, but most don't and the evangelical community has been very slow to embrace it. I have highlighted parts of the Pope's Messages that I believe are significant...

Pope Francis' Message for Lent 2015

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each communities and every believer. Above all it is a "time of grace" (2Cor 6:2). God does not ask of us anything that he himself has not first given us. "We love because he first has loved us" (1Jn 4:19). He is not aloof from us. Each one of us has a place in his heart. He knows us by name, he cares for us and he seeks us out whenever we turn away from him. He is interested in each of us; his love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us. Usually, when we are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others (something God the Father never does): we are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the injustices they endure… Our heart grows cold. As long as I am relatively healthy and comfortable, I don’t think about those less well off. Today, this selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can speak of a globalization of indifference. It is a problem which we, as Christians, need to confront.

When the people of God are converted to his love, they find answers to the questions that history continually raises. One of the most urgent challenges which I would like to address in this Message is precisely the globalization of indifference.

Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.

God is not indifferent to our world; he so loves it that he gave his Son for our salvation. In the Incarnation, in the earthly life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the gate between God and man, between heaven and earth, opens once for all. The Church is like the hand holding open this gate, thanks to her proclamation of God’s word, her celebration of the sacraments and her witness of the faith which works through love (cf. Gal 5:6). But the world tends to withdraw into itself and shut that door through which God comes into the world and the world comes to him. Hence the hand, which is the Church, must never be surprised if it is rejected, crushed and wounded.

God’s people, then, need this interior renewal, lest we become indifferent and withdraw into ourselves. To further this renewal, I would like to propose for our reflection three biblical texts.

1. "If one member suffers, all suffer together" (1 Cor 12:26) – The Church

The love of God breaks through that fatal withdrawal into ourselves which is indifference. The Church offers us this love of God by her teaching and especially by her witness. But we can only bear witness to what we ourselves have experienced. Christians are those who let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become, like Christ, servants of God and others. This is clearly seen in the liturgy of Holy Thursday, with its rite of the washing of feet. Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet, but he came to realize that Jesus does not wish to be just an example of how we should wash one another’s feet. Only those who have first allowed Jesus to wash their own feet can then offer this service to others. Only they have "a part" with him (Jn 13:8) and thus can serve others.

Lent is a favorable time for letting Christ serve us so that we in turn may become more like him. This happens whenever we hear the word of God and receive the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. There we become what we receive: the Body of Christ. In this body there is no room for the indifference which so often seems to possess our hearts. For whoever is of Christ, belongs to one body, and in him we cannot be indifferent to one another. "If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honoured, all the parts share its joy" (1 Cor 12:26).

The Church is the communio sanctorum [the communion of saints] not only because of her saints, but also because she is a communion in holy things: the love of God revealed to us in Christ and all his gifts. Among these gifts there is also the response of those who let themselves be touched by this love. In this communion of saints, in this sharing in holy things, no one possesses anything alone, but shares everything with others. And since we are united in God, we can do something for those who are far distant, those whom we could never reach on our own, because with them and for them, we ask God that all of us may be open to his plan of salvation.

2. "Where is your brother?" (Gen 4:9) – Parishes and Communities

All that we have been saying about the universal Church must now be applied to the life of our parishes and communities. Do these ecclesial structures enable us to experience being part of one body? A body which receives and shares what God wishes to give? A body which acknowledges and cares for its weakest, poorest and most insignificant members? Or do we take refuge in a universal love that would embrace the whole world, while failing to see the Lazarus sitting before our closed doors (Lk 16:19-31)?

In order to receive what God gives us and to make it bear abundant fruit, we need to press beyond the boundaries of the visible Church in two ways.

In the first place, by uniting ourselves in prayer with the Church in heaven. The prayers of the Church on earth establish a communion of mutual service and goodness which reaches up into the sight of God. Together with the saints who have found their fulfillment in God, we form part of that communion in which indifference is conquered by love. The Church in heaven is not triumphant because she has turned her back on the sufferings of the world and rejoices in splendid isolation. Rather, the saints already joyfully contemplate the fact that, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, they have triumphed once and for all over indifference, hardness of heart and hatred. Until this victory of love penetrates the whole world, the saints continue to accompany us on our pilgrim way. Saint Therese of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, expressed her conviction that the joy in heaven for the victory of crucified love remains incomplete as long as there is still a single man or woman on earth who suffers and cries out in pain: "I trust fully that I shall not remain idle in heaven; my desire is to continue to work for the Church and for souls" (Letter 254, July 14, 1897).

We share in the merits and joy of the saints, even as they share in our struggles and our longing for peace and reconciliation. Their joy in the victory of the Risen Christ gives us strength as we strive to overcome our indifference and hardness of heart.

In the second place, every Christian community is called to go out of itself and to be engaged in the life of the greater society of which it is a part, especially with the poor and those who are far away. The Church is missionary by her very nature; she is not self-enclosed but sent out to every nation and people.

Her mission is to bear patient witness to the One who desires to draw all creation and every man and woman to the Father. Her mission is to bring to all a love which cannot remain silent. The Church follows Jesus Christ along the paths that lead to every man and woman, to the very ends of the earth (cf. Acts 1:8). In each of our neighbours, then, we must see a brother or sister for whom Christ died and rose again. What we ourselves have received, we have received for them as well. Similarly, all that our brothers and sisters possess is a gift for the Church and for all humanity.

Dear brothers and sisters, how greatly I desire that all those places where the Church is present, especially our parishes and our communities, may become islands of mercy in the midst of the sea of indifference!

3. "Make your hearts firm!" (James 5:8) – Individual Christians

As individuals too, we have are tempted by indifference. Flooded with news reports and troubling images of human suffering, we often feel our complete inability to help. What can we do to avoid being caught up in this spiral of distress and powerlessness?

First, we can pray in communion with the Church on earth and in heaven. Let us not underestimate the power of so many voices united in prayer! The 24 Hours for the Lord initiative, which I hope will be observed on 13-14 March throughout the Church, also at the diocesan level, is meant to be a sign of this need for prayer.

Second, we can help by acts of charity, reaching out to both those near and far through the Church’s many charitable organizations. Lent is a favourable time for showing this concern for others by small yet concrete signs of our belonging to the one human family.

Third, the suffering of others is a call to conversion, since their need reminds me of the uncertainty of my own life and my dependence on God and my brothers and sisters. If we humbly implore God’s grace and accept our own limitations, we will trust in the infinite possibilities which God’s love holds out to us. We will also be able to resist the diabolical temptation of thinking that by our own efforts we can save the world and ourselves.

As a way of overcoming indifference and our pretensions to self-sufficiency, I would invite everyone to live this Lent as an opportunity for engaging in what Benedict XVI called a formation of the heart (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 31). A merciful heart does not mean a weak heart. Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart, closed to the tempter but open to God. A heart which lets itself be pierced by the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters. And, ultimately, a poor heart, one which realizes its own poverty and gives itself freely for others.

During this Lent, then, brothers and sisters, let us all ask the Lord: "Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum": Make our hearts like yours (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference.

It is my prayerful hope that this Lent will prove spiritually fruitful for each believer and every ecclesial community. I ask all of you to pray for me. May the Lord bless you.

Pope Francis' Message for Ash Wednesday 2015

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We begin today the liturgical season of Lent with the thought-provoking rite of the imposition of ashes, through which we wish to take on the commitment to convert our hearts to the horizons of grace. In general, in common opinion, this time runs the risk of being marked by sadness, by the darkness of life. Instead, it is a precious gift of God; it is an intense time full of meanings in the journey of the Church; it is the itinerary to the Lord's Easter. The biblical readings of today's celebration give us indications to live this spiritual experience fully.

"Return to me with all your heart" (Joel 2:12). In the first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Joel, we have heard these words with which God invited the Jewish people to sincere, not apparent, repentance. It is not about a superficial and transitory conversion but, rather, a spiritual itinerary which has much to do with the attitudes of the conscience and which implies a sincere resolution to repent. The prophet begins with the plague of the invasion of locusts, which fell on the people destroying their crops, to invite them to interior penance, to rend their hearts and not their garments (cf. 2:13).

Hence, it is about putting into practice an attitude of genuine conversion to God -- of return to him -- recognizing his holiness, his power, his majesty. And this conversion is possible because God is rich in mercy and great in love. His is a regenerating mercy, which creates a pure heart in us, renews our interior in a firm spirit, restoring to us the joy of salvation (cf.Psalm 50:14). God, in fact, does not will the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (cf. Ezekiel 33:11). So the prophet Joel orders, in the name of the Lord, that an appropriate penitential environment be created: It is necessary to blow the trumpet, convoke the meeting, awaken consciences.

The Lenten period proposes to us this liturgical and penitential ambit: a journey of forty days where we can experience in an effective way the merciful love of God. Today the call resounds for us: "Return to me with all your heart"; today we are the ones called to convert our hearts to God, conscious that we cannot carry out our conversion by ourselves, with our own efforts, because it is God who converts us. He offers us once again his forgiveness, inviting us to return to Him to give us a new heart, purified from the evil that oppresses it, to have us take part in his joy. Our world needs to be converted to God; it needs his forgiveness, his love; it needs a new heart.

"Be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). In the second reading, Saint Paul offers us another element on the path to conversion. The Apostle invites to look away from him and to direct our attention instead to the One who has sent him and to the content of the message he brings: "[s]o we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (Ibid.). An ambassador repeats what he has heard his Lord say and he speaks with the authority and within the limits he has received. He who carries out the office of ambassador must not attract attention to himself, but must place himself at the service of the message he must transmit and of the one who sent him. Saint Paul acts thus when carrying out his ministry of preaching the Word of God and of Apostle of Jesus Christ. He does not shrink in face of the task received, but carries it out with total dedication, inviting us to open ourselves to grace, to allow God to convert us. "Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain" (2 Corinthians 6:1).

"Now then, Christ's call to conversion," the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, "continues to resound in the lives of Christians. [...] is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who 'clasping sinners to her bosom, [is]at once holy and always in need of purification, [and] follows constantly the path of penance and renewal' (LG 8). This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a 'contrite heart' (Psalm 51:19), drawn and moved by grace (cf. John 6:44; 12:32) to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first (cf. 1 John 4:10)" (No. 1428).

St. Paul speaks to the Christians of Corinth, but through them he intends to address all men. All in fact are in need of the grace of God, to illumine their minds and hearts. And the Apostle adds: "now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians6:2). We can all open ourselves to God's action, to his love; with our evangelical witness, we Christians must be a living message, in fact, in many cases we are the only Gospel that the men of today still read. This is our responsibility, following the steps of Saint Paul, here is another reason to live Lent well: to give witness of a lived faith to a world in difficulty that needs to return to God, which is in need of conversion.

"Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them" (Matthew 6:1). In today's Gospel, Jesus repeats the three essential works of piety established in the Mosaic Law. Almsgiving, prayer and fasting characterized the Jews who observed the law. With the passing of time, these prescriptions were stained by the rust of exterior formalism, or they have even been transformed into a sign of superiority.

In these three works of piety Jesus makes evident a common temptation. When something good is done, almost instinctively the desire arises to be esteemed and admired for the good action, to have some satisfaction. And this, on one hand, shuts us in on ourselves, and on the other it takes us out of ourselves, because we live projected to what others think of us and admire in us. In proposing these prescriptions again, the Lord Jesus does not ask for formal respect to a law foreign to man, imposed by a severe lawmaker as a heavy burden, but he invites us to rediscover these three works of piety by living them more profoundly, not for love of self but for love of God, as means on the path of conversion to Him.

Almsgiving, prayer and fasting is the course of the divine pedagogy that supports us, not only in Lent, toward the encounter with the Risen Lord; a path to follow without ostentation, in the certainty that the heavenly Father is able to read and also to see in the secrecy of our hearts.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us begin this Lenten itinerary confident and joyful. Forty days separate us from Easter; this "intense" time of the liturgical year is a propitious time to attend, with greater commitment, to our conversion, to intensify listening to the Word of God, prayer and penance, opening our hearts to the docile acceptance of the divine will, for a more generous practice of mortification, thanks to which we will go more readily to help our needy neighbor: a spiritual itinerary which prepares us to receive the Paschal Mystery.

Lord, Guide our Lenten path, lead us to an ever more profound knowledge of Christ, dead and resurrected, may she help us in the spiritual battle against sin, may she sustain us on invoking forcefully: Convert us, "Deus salutaris noster" -- Convert us to You, O God, our salvation." Amen!

February 17, 2015

Tomorrow begins the journey of Lent. This season is my favorite time of the year as a pastor as for me it is the heart of the Christian Faith. Ash Wednesday when we are reminded of our sin, our mortality and our need of the cross of Jesus Christ. The imposition of ashes with the refrain over and over "From dust you came and to dust you shall return" spoken over 200 times is powerful. Then there are the Sundays of Lent, when this year I will be preaching a sermon series on The Lord's Prayer "Lord, Teach us To Pray: Praying and Living the Lord's Prayer". Then, Palm Sunday. Then, Maundy Thursday. Then, Good Friday. Then, Holy Saturday. And finally Easter Sunday and on to Pentecost when I will be preaching a series entitled "Practicing Resurrection" (a title taken from Eugene Peterson) looking at the 40 days between Easter and Pentecost. So as we begin the journey together I offer this prayer from The Book of Order of the Church of Scotland:

Lord Jesus Christ, you refused to turn stones to bread. Save us from using our power, however little, to satisfy the demands of selfishness in the face of the greater needs of others.

Lord Jesus Christ, you refused to leap from the Temple top. Save us from displaying our skills, however modest, to win instant popularity in the face of nobler calls on our abilities.

Lord Jesus Christ, you refused to bend your knee to a false god. Save us from offering our worship and devotion, however weak, to cheap or easy religion in the face of the harder path on which you bid us to follow you.

Lord Jesus Christ, you saw Satan masquerading as an angel of light and shunned him. Give us the wisdom to discern behind each subtle temptation the ploy of the prince of darkness; and in the face of all that is hellishly attractive, help us to choose the will and word of God.

Amen.

May I commend Henri Nouwen's book In the Name of Jesus as a great resource to go deeper into this prayer. May I also commend Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic The Cost of Discipleship as a great resource to challenge your following of Jesus Christ.

I would also love to hear from you and your Christian communities how God is speaking and working during this Lenten season.

May your journey take you to the heart of God in Jesus Christ and may your heart be transformed this season.

February 11, 2015

25 years ago I was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. I had been ordained in another denomination in the USA nine years earlier, but it was a denomination with a very low view of ordination and to be honest, I was never really at home in it and had no sense of commitment. So, I was not raised Presbyterian...I was called to it. I came to faith in Christ in a large non-denominational church (Elmbrook Church pastored by Stuart Briscoe) so denominationalism was not important to me in my early Christian life. It was some years later when I was called to go and pursue a PhD in theology that this all became a significant issue. My wife and I attended one of the first theology conferences at Wheaton College and John Stott was doing the Biblical expositions. I had met John earlier at Urbana (Inter-Varsity Conference) and he and I exchanged correspondence that lasted his lifetime. So when the Wheaton Conference happened, John invited my wife Caroline and I to spend some time together and catch up and pray. So we met in the Chapel in the Billy Graham Center if I remember correctly. We shared our journey and that we were returning to Belfast, Northern Ireland (my wife's home) for me to pursue a PhD. After hearing our journey, John challenged me/us with this question "Where is your ecclesiastical home?" for what he heard was we had no home theologically or otherwise. Caroline had been baptized, raised and confirmed in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, but had come to true faith later through the ministry of a house church in East Belfast. When I looked back I had been mostly influenced through British evangelicals (mostly in the Anglican Church like John Stott, David Watson, Michael Green and of course JI Packer) and several Presbyterians (Eugene Peterson, Ben Patterson, Lloyd Ogilvie, Bruce Larson, Earl Palmer and my college pastor Bob Dickson of Hope Presbyterian Church in the Twin Cities). Then John said "if you are going to be a global Christian I highly recommend that you find your ecclesiastical home whether it is Anglicanism or Presbyterianism." Without that significant conversation with John Stott I doubt whether I would have ever heard the call.

Well we headed to Northern Ireland. A friend had been serving for a couple of years at Fisherwick Presbyterian Church near Queens University where I was going to do doctoral studies. He was returning to the States and the church wanted someone to do student ministries. So Fisherwick took a risk with another American. These days of study and ministry remains some of the finest of my life. This ultimately led me to sense God's calling to become a Presbyterian. I recognized that this was to be my theological and ecclesiological home. It has been a love-hate relationship for 25 years now, both in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland as the division and discord within that expression of Presbyterianism was around The Troubles, The Relationship between Protestant and Catholic, and the world of socio-economic and political allegiances AND within the Presbyterian Church USA to which I returned to the States were engaged in intense debate and struggle around issues of sexuality, ordination, leadership, etc. So I was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland on Sunday February 11, 1990 the same day Nelson Mandela was freed from a South African prison. I remember that because our praise team sang two South African songs in the service. I also remember everyone who was there, the sermon that was preached, the charge that was given, but what I remember most was when I signed the book of ordinations from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland which dated back to the late 16th century and the laying on of hands and prayers by all the ministers and elders while I kneeled on the steps of the chancel at Fisherwick. I remember those prayers lasting a long time and the weight of those hands on me. It was not until some years later when I described this to my friend and colleague Ben Patterson and he said in effect "Bryan that is the weight of God's glory (read CS Lewis) upon you and your ministry and the weight of the responsibility of being a pastor in Christ's Church."

The Meaning and Significance

Many churches and denomination have a fairly low view of ordination, while others have a very high view of it. Ordination is about how God orders His People and His Church to worship, minister and engage in mission. Ordination does not make me better than anyone else in the church or society. It is highly functional in nature. However it is a communal recognition that someone is called and qualified to be a pastor to the people of God. As NT Wright has said somewhere "Ordination in the Church of Jesus Christ is not a right. It is a calling on an individual that is confirmed by the Christian Community." (paraphrase).

Over these years, I still love being a pastor. I struggle with what the pastorate has become in the Western Church. I still have a love-hate relationship with the denomination into which I am ordained. Yet, I still take my calling to the Presbyterian Church seriously and I still take my ordination seriously. I love to preach and teach. I love to lead worship and pray. I love to lead in communion and to baptize. I love to disciple men, women and children into the life of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. I love educating and equipping God's people for ministry and mission. I love being part of a global church. I love being part of calling others to live into their divine callings, whether it be to the pastorate, the mission field, or to every and all occupations that are to be seen as vocations---callings from God---that the local business person is as called as the missionary serving in Africa.

February 09, 2015

My birthday is February 6th. Has been ever since I was born :) Thanks to so many of you who wished me a good one! Readers of this blog know that i share this birthday with Babe Ruth, Ronald Reagan, Bob Marley, Tom Brokaw to name a few. So for my birthday, Caroline (my wife) and I went and saw one of the greats of rock and roll history, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band, at The Tampa Bay Arena. He began his show with Roll Me Away and finished with Rock and Roll Never Forgets. The playlist for the night was as follows:

Roll Me Away, Tryin' to Live My Life Without You, The Fire Down Below, The Devil's Right Hand, Mainstreet, Old Time Rock & Roll, The Fireman's Talkin' Come to Poppa, Her Strut, Like a Rock Travelin' Man/Beautiful Loser, All of the Roads. Hey Gypsy We've Got Tonight, Turn The Page, Detroit Made

Encores: Against the Wind, Hollywood Nights, Night Moves Rock and Roll Never Forgets

My wife's favorite Seger song is "Roll Me Away" so Seger started the night right and then my favorite Seger song opened the encores "Against the Wind", which is almost an anthem for me and my life. It goes like this:

It seems like yesterday But it was long agoShe was lovely she was the queen of my nights There in the darkness with the radio playing low And the secrets that we shared The mountains that we moved Caught like a wildfire out of control 'Til there was nothing left to burn and nothing left to prove And I remember what she said to me How she swore that it never would end I remember how she held me oh so tight Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then

Against the wind We were runnin' against the wind We were young and strong, we were runnin' Against the wind

The years rolled slowly past And I found myself alone Surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends I found myself further and further from my home And I guess I lost my way There were oh so many roads I was living to run and running to live Never worried about paying or even how much I owed Moving eight miles a minute for months at a time Breaking all of the rules that would bend I began to find myself searching Searching for shelter again and again

Against the wind A little something against the wind I found myself seeking shelter sgainst the wind

Well those drifter's days are past me now I've got so much more to think about Deadlines and commitments What to leave in, what to leave out

Against the wind I'm still runnin' against the wind I'm older now but still runnin' against the wind Well I'm older now and still runnin' Against the wind Against the wind Against the wind

Still runnin' I'm still runnin' against the wind I'm still runnin' I'm still runnin' against the wind Still runnin' Runnin' against the wind Runnin' against the wind See the young man run Watch the young man run Watch the young man runnin' He'll be runnin' against the wind Let the cowboys ride Let the cowboys ride They'll be ridin' against the wind Against the wind ...

Then the same night Bob Dylan received a lifetime achievement award from MusicCares at a pre-Grammy gathering. The award was presented by President Jimmy Carter and then Dylan did what he rarely does, he spoke at length and with great clarity. (highlight clip on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scjD7h6v2Zc) Here is what Dylan said (it even made the NY Times):

I'm glad for my songs to be honored like this. But you know, they didn't get here by themselves. It's been a long road and it's taken a lot of doing. These songs of mine, they're like mystery stories, the kind that Shakespeare saw when he was growing up. I think you could trace what I do back that far. They were on the fringes then, and I think they're on the fringes now. And they sound like they've been on the hard ground.

I should mention a few people along the way who brought this about. I know I should mention John Hammond, great talent scout for Columbia Records. He signed me to that label when I was nobody. It took a lot of faith to do that, and he took a lot of ridicule, but he was his own man and he was courageous. And for that, I'm eternally grateful. The last person he discovered before me was Aretha Franklin, and before that Count Basie, Billie Holiday and a whole lot of other artists. All noncommercial artists.

Trends did not interest John, and I was very noncommercial but he stayed with me. He believed in my talent and that's all that mattered. I can't thank him enough for that.

Lou Levy runs Leeds Music, and they published my earliest songs, but I didn't stay there too long. Levy himself, he went back a long ways. He signed me to that company and recorded my songs and I sang them into a tape recorder. He told me outright, there was no precedent for what I was doing, that I was either before my time or behind it. And if I brought him a song like "Stardust," he'd turn it down because it would be too late.

He told me that if I was before my time -- and he didn't really know that for sure -- but if it was happening and if it was true, the public would usually take three to five years to catch up -- so be prepared. And that did happen. The trouble was, when the public did catch up I was already three to five years beyond that, so it kind of complicated it. But he was encouraging, and he didn't judge me, and I'll always remember him for that.

Artie Mogull at Witmark Music signed me next to his company, and he told me to just keep writing songs no matter what, that I might be on to something. Well, he too stood behind me, and he could never wait to see what I'd give him next. I didn't even think of myself as a songwriter before then. I'll always be grateful for him also for that attitude.

I have to mention some of the early artists who recorded my songs very, very early, without having to be asked. Just something they felt about them that was right for them. I've got to say thank you to Peter, Paul and Mary, who I knew all separately before they ever became a group. I didn't even think of myself as writing songs for others to sing but it was starting to happen and it couldn't have happened to, or with, a better group.

They took a song of mine that had been recorded before that was buried on one of my records and turned it into a hit song. Not the way I would have done it -- they straightened it out. But since then hundreds of people have recorded it and I don't think that would have happened if it wasn't for them. They definitely started something for me.

The Byrds, the Turtles, Sonny & Cher -- they made some of my songs Top 10 hits but I wasn't a pop songwriter and I really didn't want to be that, but it was good that it happened. Their versions of songs were like commercials, but I didn't really mind that because 50 years later my songs were being used in the commercials. So that was good too. I was glad it happened, and I was glad they'd done it.

Pervis Staples and the Staple Singers -- long before they were on Stax they were on Epic and they were one of my favorite groups of all time. I met them all in '62 or '63. They heard my songs live and Pervis wanted to record three or four of them and he did with the Staples Singers. They were the type of artists that I wanted recording my songs.

Nina Simone. I used to cross paths with her in New York City in the Village Gate nightclub. These were the artists I looked up to. She recorded some of my songs that she [inaudible] to me. She was an overwhelming artist, piano player and singer. Very strong woman, very outspoken. That she was recording my songs validated everything that I was about.

Oh, and can't forget Jimi Hendrix. I actually saw Jimi Hendrix perform when he was in a band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames -- something like that. And Jimi didn't even sing. He was just the guitar player. He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and pumped them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere and turned them all into classics. I have to thank Jimi, too. I wish he was here.

Johnny Cash recorded some of my songs early on, too, up in about '63, when he was all skin and bones. He traveled long, he traveled hard, but he was a hero of mine. I heard many of his songs growing up. I knew them better than I knew my own. "Big River," "I Walk the Line."

"How high's the water, Mama?" I wrote "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" with that song reverberating inside my head. I still ask, "How high is the water, mama?" Johnny was an intense character. And he saw that people were putting me down playing electric music, and he posted letters to magazines scolding people, telling them to shut up and let him sing.

In Johnny Cash's world -- hardcore Southern drama -- that kind of thing didn't exist. Nobody told anybody what to sing or what not to sing. They just didn't do that kind of thing. I'm always going to thank him for that. Johnny Cash was a giant of a man, the man in black. And I'll always cherish the friendship we had until the day there is no more days.

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Joan Baez. She was the queen of folk music then and now. She took a liking to my songs and brought me with her to play concerts, where she had crowds of thousands of people enthralled with her beauty and voice.

People would say, "What are you doing with that ragtag scrubby little waif?" And she'd tell everybody in no uncertain terms, "Now you better be quiet and listen to the songs." We even played a few of them together. Joan Baez is as tough-minded as they come. Love. And she's a free, independent spirit. Nobody can tell her what to do if she doesn't want to do it. I learned a lot of things from her. A woman with devastating honesty. And for her kind of love and devotion, I could never pay that back.

These songs didn't come out of thin air. I didn't just make them up out of whole cloth. Contrary to what Lou Levy said, there was a precedent. It all came out of traditional music: traditional folk music, traditional rock 'n' roll and traditional big-band swing orchestra music.

I learned lyrics and how to write them from listening to folk songs. And I played them, and I met other people that played them back when nobody was doing it. Sang nothing but these folk songs, and they gave me the code for everything that's fair game, that everything belongs to everyone.

For three or four years all I listened to were folk standards. I went to sleep singing folk songs. I sang them everywhere, clubs, parties, bars, coffeehouses, fields, festivals. And I met other singers along the way who did the same thing and we just learned songs from each other. I could learn one song and sing it next in an hour if I'd heard it just once.

If you sang "John Henry" as many times as me -- "John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain't nothin' but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I'll die with that hammer in my hand."

If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too.

Big Bill Broonzy had a song called "Key to the Highway." "I've got a key to the highway / I'm booked and I'm bound to go / Gonna leave here runnin' because walking is most too slow." I sang that a lot. If you sing that a lot, you just might write,

Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose

Welfare Department they wouldn’t give him no clothes

He asked poor Howard where can I go

Howard said there’s only one place I know

Sam said tell me quick man I got to run

Howard just pointed with his gun

And said that way down on Highway 61

You'd have written that too if you'd sang "Key to the Highway" as much as me.

"Roll the cotton down, aw, yeah, roll the cotton down / Ten dollars a day is a white man's pay / A dollar a day is the black man's pay / Roll the cotton down." If you sang that song as many times as me, you'd be writing "I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more," too.

I sang a lot of "come all you" songs. There's plenty of them. There's way too many to be counted. "Come along boys and listen to my tale / Tell you of my trouble on the old Chisholm Trail." Or, "Come all ye good people, listen while I tell / the fate of Floyd Collins a lad we all know well / The fate of Floyd Collins, a lad we all know well."

"Come all ye fair and tender ladies / Take warning how you court your men / They're like a star on a summer morning / They first appear and then they're gone again." "If you'll gather 'round, people / A story I will tell / 'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw / Oklahoma knew him well."

If you sung all these "come all ye" songs all the time, you'd be writing, "Come gather 'round people where ever you roam, admit that the waters around you have grown / Accept that soon you'll be drenched to the bone / If your time to you is worth saving / And you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone / The times they are a-changing."

You'd have written them too. There's nothing secret about it. You just do it subliminally and unconsciously, because that's all enough, and that's all I sang. That was all that was dear to me. They were the only kinds of songs that made sense.

"When you go down to Deep Ellum keep your money in your socks / Women in Deep Ellum put you on the rocks." Sing that song for a while and you just might come up with, "When you're lost in the rain in Juarez and it's Easter time too / And your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through / Don’t put on any airs / When you’re down on Rue Morgue Avenue / They got some hungry women there / And they really make a mess outta you."

All these songs are connected. Don't be fooled. I just opened up a different door in a different kind of way. It's just different, saying the same thing. I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary.

Well you know, I just thought I was doing something natural, but right from the start, my songs were divisive for some reason. They divided people. I never knew why. Some got angered, others loved them. Didn't know why my songs had detractors and supporters. A strange environment to have to throw your songs into, but I did it anyway.

Last thing I thought of was who cared about what song I was writing. I was just writing them. I didn't think I was doing anything different. I thought I was just extending the line. Maybe a little bit unruly, but I was just elaborating on situations. Maybe hard to pin down, but so what? A lot of people are hard to pin down. You've just got to bear it. I didn't really care what Lieber and Stoller thought of my songs.

They didn't like 'em, but Doc Pomus did. That was all right that they didn't like 'em, because I never liked their songs either. "Yakety yak, don't talk back." "Charlie Brown is a clown," "Baby I'm a hog for you." Novelty songs. They weren't saying anything serious. Doc's songs, they were better. "This Magic Moment." "Lonely Avenue." Save the Last Dance for Me.

Those songs broke my heart. I figured I'd rather have his blessings any day than theirs.

Ahmet Ertegun didn't think much of my songs, but Sam Phillips did. Ahmet founded Atlantic Records. He produced some great records: Ray Charles, Ray Brown, just to name a few.

There were some great records in there, no question about it. But Sam Phillips, he recorded Elvis and Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Radical eyes that shook the very essence of humanity. Revolution in style and scope. Heavy shape and color. Radical to the bone. Songs that cut you to the bone. Renegades in all degrees, doing songs that would never decay, and still resound to this day. Oh, yeah, I'd rather have Sam Phillips' blessing any day.

Merle Haggard didn't even think much of my songs. I know he didn't. He didn't say that to me, but I know [inaudible]. Buck Owens did, and he recorded some of my early songs. Merle Haggard -- "Mama Tried," "The Bottle Let Me Down," "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive." I can't imagine Waylon Jennings singing "The Bottle Let Me Down."

"Together Again"? That's Buck Owens, and that trumps anything coming out of Bakersfield. Buck Owens and Merle Haggard? If you have to have somebody's blessing -- you figure it out.

Oh, yeah. Critics have been giving me a hard time since Day One. Critics say I can't sing. I croak. Sound like a frog. Why don't critics say that same thing about Tom Waits? Critics say my voice is shot. That I have no voice. What don't they say those things about Leonard Cohen? Why do I get special treatment? Critics say I can't carry a tune and I talk my way through a song. Really? I've never heard that said about Lou Reed. Why does he get to go scot-free?

What have I done to deserve this special attention? No vocal range? When's the last time you heard Dr. John? Why don't you say that about him? Slur my words, got no diction. Have you people ever listened to Charley Patton or Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters. Talk about slurred words and no diction. [Inaudible] doesn't even matter.

"Why me, Lord?" I would say that to myself.

Critics say I mangle my melodies, render my songs unrecognizable. Oh, really? Let me tell you something. I was at a boxing match a few years ago seeing Floyd Mayweather fight a Puerto Rican guy. And the Puerto Rican national anthem, somebody sang it and it was beautiful. It was heartfelt and it was moving.

After that it was time for our national anthem. And a very popular soul-singing sister was chosen to sing. She sang every note -- that exists, and some that don't exist. Talk about mangling a melody. You take a one-syllable word and make it last for 15 minutes? She was doing vocal gymnastics like she was on a trapeze act. But to me it was not funny.

Where were the critics? Mangling lyrics? Mangling a melody? Mangling a treasured song? No, I get the blame. But I don't really think I do that. I just think critics say I do.

Sam Cooke said this when told he had a beautiful voice: He said, "Well that's very kind of you, but voices ought not to be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth." Think about that the next time you [inaudible].

Times always change. They really do. And you have to always be ready for something that's coming along and you never expected it. Way back when, I was in Nashville making some records and I read this article, a Tom T. Hall interview. Tom T. Hall, he was bitching about some kind of new song, and he couldn't understand what these new kinds of songs that were coming in were about.

Now Tom, he was one of the most preeminent songwriters of the time in Nashville. A lot of people were recording his songs and he himself even did it. But he was all in a fuss about James Taylor, a song James had called "Country Road." Tom was going off in this interview -- "But James don't say nothing about a country road. He's just says how you can feel it on the country road. I don't understand that."

Now some might say Tom is a great songwriter. I'm not going to doubt that. At the time he was doing this interview I was actually listening to a song of his on the radio.

It was called "I Love." I was listening to it in a recording studio, and he was talking about all the things he loves, an everyman kind of song, trying to connect with people. Trying to make you think that he's just like you and you're just like him. We all love the same things, and we're all in this together. Tom loves little baby ducks, slow-moving trains and rain. He loves old pickup trucks and little country streams. Sleeping without dreams. Bourbon in a glass. Coffee in a cup. Tomatoes on the vine, and onions.

Now listen, I'm not ever going to disparage another songwriter. I'm not going to do that. I'm not saying it's a bad song. I'm just saying it might be a little overcooked. But, you know, it was in the top 10 anyway. Tom and a few other writers had the whole Nashville scene sewed up in a box. If you wanted to record a song and get it in the top 10 you had to go to them, and Tom was one of the top guys. They were all very comfortable, doing their thing.

This was about the time that Willie Nelson picked up and moved to Texas. About the same time. He's still in Texas. Everything was very copacetic. Everything was all right until -- until -- Kristofferson came to town. Oh, they ain't seen anybody like him. He came into town like a wildcat, flew his helicopter into Johnny Cash's backyard like a typical songwriter. And he went for the throat. "Sunday Morning Coming Down."

Well, I woke up Sunday morning

With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.

And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad

So I had one more for dessert

Then I fumbled through my closet

Found my cleanest dirty shirt

Then I washed my face and combed my hair

And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything. That one song ruined Tom T. Hall's poker parties. It might have sent him to the crazy house. God forbid he ever heard any of my songs.

You walk into the room

With your pencil in your hand

You see somebody naked

You say, “Who is that man?”

You try so hard

But you don’t understand

Just what you're gonna say

When you get home

You know something is happening here

But you don’t know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones?

If "Sunday Morning Coming Down" rattled Tom's cage, sent him into the looney bin, my song surely would have made him blow his brains out, right there in the minivan. Hopefully he didn't hear it.

I just released an album of standards, all the songs usually done by Michael Buble, Harry Connick Jr., maybe Brian Wilson's done a couple, Linda Ronstadt done 'em. But the reviews of their records are different than the reviews of my record.

In their reviews no one says anything. In my reviews, [inaudible] they've got to look under every stone when it comes to me. They've got to mention all the songwriters' names. Well that's OK with me. After all, they're great songwriters and these are standards. I've seen the reviews come in, and they'll mention all the songwriters in half the review, as if everybody knows them. Nobody's heard of them, not in this time, anyway. Buddy Kaye, Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh, to name a few.

But, you know, I'm glad they mention their names, and you know what? I'm glad they got their names in the press. It might have taken some time to do it, but they're finally there. I can only wonder why it took so long. My only regret is that they're not here to see it.

Traditional rock 'n' roll, we're talking about that. It's all about rhythm. Johnny Cash said it best: "Get rhythm. Get rhythm when you get the blues." Very few rock 'n' roll bands today play with rhythm. They don't know what it is. Rock 'n' roll is a combination of blues, and it's a strange thing made up of two parts. A lot of people don't know this, but the blues, which is an American music, is not what you think it is. It's a combination of Arabic violins and Strauss waltzes working it out. But it's true.

The other half of rock 'n' roll has got to be hillbilly. And that's a derogatory term, but it ought not to be. That's a term that includes the Delmore Bros., Stanley Bros., Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley ... groups like that. Moonshiners gone berserk. Fast cars on dirt roads. That's the kind of combination that makes up rock 'n' roll, and it can't be cooked up in a science laboratory or a studio.

You have to have the right kind of rhythm to play this kind of music. If you can't hardly play the blues, how do you [inaudible] those other two kinds of music in there? You can fake it, but you can't really do it.

Critics have made a career out of accusing me of having a career of confounding expectations. Really? Because that's all I do. That's how I think about it. Confounding expectations.

"What do you do for a living, man?"

"Oh, I confound expectations."

You're going to get a job, the man says, "What do you do?" "Oh, confound expectations.: And the man says, "Well, we already have that spot filled. Call us back. Or don't call us, we'll call you." Confounding expectations. What does that mean? 'Why me, Lord? I'd confound them, but I don't know how to do it.'

The Blackwood Bros. have been talking to me about making a record together. That might confound expectations, but it shouldn't. Of course it would be a gospel album. I don't think it would be anything out of the ordinary for me. Not a bit. One of the songs I'm thinking about singing is "Stand By Me" by the Blackwood Brothers. Not "Stand By Me" the pop song. No. The real "Stand By Me."

The real one goes like this:

When the storm of life is raging / Stand by me / When the storm of life is raging / Stand by me / When the world is tossing me / Like a ship upon the sea / Thou who rulest wind and water / Stand by me

In the midst of tribulation / Stand by me / In the midst of tribulation / Stand by me / When the hosts of hell assail / And my strength begins to fail / Thou who never lost a battle / Stand by me

In the midst of faults and failures / Stand by me / In the midst of faults and failures / Stand by me / When I do the best I can / And my friends don't understand / Thou who knowest all about me / Stand by me

That's the song. I like it better than the pop song. If I record one by that name, that's going to be the one. I'm also thinking of recording a song, not on that album, though: "Oh Lord, Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."

Anyway, why me, Lord. What did I do?

Anyway, I'm proud to be here tonight for MusiCares. I'm honored to have all these artists singing my songs. There's nothing like that. Great artists. [applause, inaudible]. They're all singing the truth, and you can hear it in their voices.

I'm proud to be here tonight for MusiCares. I think a lot of this organization. They've helped many people. Many musicians who have contributed a lot to our culture. I'd like to personally thank them for what they did for a friend of mine, Billy Lee Riley. A friend of mine who they helped for six years when he was down and couldn't work. Billy was a son of rock 'n' roll, obviously.

He was a true original. He did it all: He played, he sang, he wrote. He would have been a bigger star but Jerry Lee came along. And you know what happens when someone like that comes along. You just don't stand a chance.

I became what is known in the industry -- a condescending term, by the way -- as a one-hit wonder. But sometimes, just sometimes, once in a while, a one-hit wonder can make a more powerful impact than a recording star who's got 20 or 30 hits behind him. And Billy's hit song was called "Red Hot," and it was red hot! It could blast you out of your skull and make you feel happy about it. Change your life.

He did it with style and grace. You won't find him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's not there. Metallica is. Abba is. Mamas and the Papas -- I know they're in there. Jefferson Airplane, Alice Cooper, Steely Dan -- I've got nothing against them. Soft rock, hard rock, psychedelic pop. I got nothing against any of that stuff, but after all, it is called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Billy Lee Riley is not there. Yet.

I'd see him a couple times a year and we'd always spent time together and he was on a rockabilly festival nostalgia circuit, and we'd cross paths now and again. We'd always spend time together. He was a hero of mine. I'd heard "Red Hot." I must have been only 15 or 16 when I did and it's impressed me to this day.

I never grow tired of listening to it. Never got tired of watching Billy Lee perform, either. We spent time together just talking and playing into the night. He was a deep, truthful man. He wasn't bitter or nostalgic. He just accepted it. He knew where he had come from and he was content with who he was.

And then one day he got sick. And like my friend John Mellencamp would sing -- because John sang some truth today -- one day you get sick and you don't get better. That's from a song of his called "Life is Short Even on Its Longest Days." It's one of the better songs of the last few years, actually. I ain't lying.

And I ain't lying when I tell you that MusiCares paid for my friend's doctor bills, and helped him to get spending money. They were able to at least make his life comfortable, tolerable to the end. That is something that can't be repaid. Any organization that would do that would have to have my blessing.

I'm going to get out of here now. I'm going to put an egg in my shoe and beat it. I probably left out a lot of people and said too much about some. But that's OK. Like the spiritual song, 'I'm still just crossing over Jordan too.' Let's hope we meet again. Sometime. And we will, if, like Hank Williams said, "the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise."

Dylan sure gave us something to think about...

And between Bob Seger and Bob Dylan, it was a great birthday again this year!

January 19, 2015

I grew up in Wisconsin. I was a Packer fan(atic) by the time I was 4 years old. They were the greatest team when I was a kid...The Pack had the greatest coach (Lombardi) and some of the greatest players to ever play in the "good old days"(Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor, Body Dowler, Ray Nitschke to name a few). Then we had nearly 25 years of bad teams never measuring up to the glory days, but I stayed loyal. Then when I had children, I have passed the passion and the stories along to my children, with a great introduction at Lambeau Field. And then in the 1990s, The Packers became champions again under Mike Homgren, Brett Favre, Reggie White and others. Then, we moved to Seattle and lived there for 15 years and yes I became a fan of the Seahawks too. After all Mike Holmgren, the coach who took Green Bay to the SuperBowl twice and a win in one of those years, came to coach Seattle. And he led them to a SuperBowl along with our former back-up QB to Brett Favre, Matt Hasselbeck, only to get ripped off by the Pittsburgh Steelers and the refs. And Seattle's heart broke and shortly after Mike Holmgren was gone and Pete Carroll, one of my favorite coaches who came from USC. Yet, I bleed green and gold and am bleeding it today. Yes, I wore my Packer gear proudly when the Packers came to Seattle to play. Loved it when Seattle had to go to Green Bay a few years back, and in fact my son Mark and I actually went to the game through the great gift of a friend who got us to the playoff game (sitting in Seahawks seats by the way) and we beat them handily in Green Bay (and in the snow), only to lose to the NY Giants the following week and NOT make it to the Superbowl. And we mourned in Green Bay.

Yesterday should have been played in Green Bay had they have simply taken care of business a few weeks ago in Buffalo or even in New Orleans. But NO, it was in Seattle. Yesterday hurt and angered me as a Green Bay Packer fan. And I am not the only one. While Coach McCarthy is a good coach, and could even be a great coach, his conservatism continues to plague us...5 field goals? Really? When you have the best offense in the NFL, the best QB in the NFL, and a huge offense to make it happen. and you are inside the 5 yard line and even on the 5 inch line, you kick field goals? Then when you get the lead, you start calling conservative running plays that are not working and not killing enough time on the clock. You do not let the QB do his thing? McCarthy has allowed his conservatism to let teams into games that should not even be competitive and yesterday cost the Packers the game. But then there is our Defensive Coach Dom Capers who some people think is a genius. I do not. Our Defense was shutting Seattle down hard. And then that team disappeared in the last quarter of the game, let alone where was it His "conservative protection" defense rather than agressive swarming defense that was killing the Seahawks disappears. Where was Clay Matthews? On the sideline! Are you kidding? This mix between McCarthy and Capers is NOT working! One final note, special teams...Nothing else to say. Fake field goal and an onside kick and we are not prepared when it counted most!

I cannot yet say GO SEAHAWKS in the SuperBowl but I will get there by Wednesday or Thursday and will be ALL IN for them and part of the 12th Man when they play on February 1st. But not yet.

Please pray for me, my children and all of Packer nation as we grieve today.

Later this week I will be able to say GO SEAHAWKS! But not yet...sorry. Thanks for allowing me to engage in some self-therapy and perhaps provide another voice to all mourning Green Bay Packer Fans today...But there is always next year...